Within the Hollow Crown
by Valeera
Summary: Being of noble birth, Joanna Baratheon always knew she would be marry to a man for a political alliance. And as a princess, it was much worse. What she didn't know was that she would spend her next summers and winters in the North for that purpose to one day become the wife of Robb Stark, and just how much it would change her life.


**Hello fellow ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fans! Okay well, after some editing and rewriting, I have finally brought forth a fic about my book series and television series! Its insipred by Martin's series, Shadow On The Crown by Patricia Bracewell, The Devil's Whore, and the ever so lovely stories 'Price of Our Sins' by x XRoweenaJAugustineX X and 'Paradise Lost' by Maddi Rose. The prologue is not much and has a bit of dialogue and passages from AFFC to make it have a more authentic feel to it (if that makes sense), but **** I think it's pretty good and if you guys like, I might continue. Enjoy!**

**Title: Within the Hollow Crown  
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**Author: Valeera  
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**Rating: PG-13 to R- ********Rating will go up and down like a roller coaster **for language, violence, and sensuality.  


**Summary:** **Being of noble birth, Joanna Baratheon always knew she would be marry to a man for a political alliance. And as a princess, it was much worse. What she didn't know was that she would spend her next summers and winters in the North for that purpose to one day become the wife of Robb Stark, and just how much it would change her life. **

**Pairings: RobbxOC and others that I will not mention because that will ruin the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own ASOIAF or Game of Thrones, and never will. I only made this out the depths of my creativity, for my pleasure and for entertainment. It all belongs to G.R.R. Martin and I guess HBO.  
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**Over & Out**

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**Prologue**

The girls had been breathless and giddy, whispering to each other as they went, excited as they were afraid. Wrapped up in their rough spun cloaks with their hoods pulled up, they trudged across the tourney grounds in dead of night to seek out a sorceress. They had heard from a pair of servant girls of an old woman, whispering of how she could curse a man or make him fall in love, or summon demons and foretell the future.

They made a circuit through the pavilion from out of sight of knights and serving men. The girls wandered for a long while before they found the old crone's tent.

Lord Tywin Lannister's only daughter was the first through the flap, head held haughtily high, with pretty Melara Hetherspoon close behind her. Fat Jeyne Farman came last and trying to hind behind the other two, as she always did. They found the old witch was sleeping. The leader of the trio threw off her cloak, kicked the hag's bed, and said, "Wake up, we want our future's told."

When Maggy the Frog opened her eyes, Jeyne Farman gave a frightful squeak and fled the tent, plunging headlong back into the night. The old woman's eyes were yellow, and crusted all about with something vile. She was short, squat, and warty, with pebbly greenish jowls. Her teeth were gone and her dugs hung down below to her knees. You could smell sickness on her if you stood to close, and when she spoke her breath was strange, and strong and fowl.

"Begone," she told the girls in a croaking whisper. The voice was surprisingly deep and harsh-roughened, Cersei guessed by wood smoke and disuse.

"We came for a foretelling," Cersei told her.

"Begone," croaked the old woman a second time.

"We heard that you can see into the morrow," said Melara. "We just want to know what men we're going to marry."

"Begone," croaked Maggy a third time.

Cersei raised her head high again, putting her hands upon her hips. "Give us our foretelling or I'll go to my lord father and have you whipped for insolence."

"Please," begged Melara. "Just tell us our futures, and then we'll go."

"Some are here who have no futures," Maggy muttered in a terrible deep voice, glancing briefly at Melara. She pulled her robes about her shoulders and beckoned the girls closer. "Come, if you will not go. Fools. Come, yes. I must taste your blood."

Melara paled, but not Cersei. She took the dagger Maggy offered her, and ran the twisted iron blade across the ball of her thumb. Then she did Melara too. In the dim green lighted tent, the blood seemed black than crimson red. Maggy's toothless mouth trembled at the sight of it. "Here," she whispered. "Give it here." When Cersei offered her hand, she sucked away the blood with gums as soft as a newborn babe's. Cersei cringed in disgust at how queer and cold the hag's mouth felt against her skin.

"Three questions you may ask," the crone said, once she'd had her drink of both the girls' blood. "You will not like my answers. Ask, or begone with you."

But Lord Tywin's daughter with the golden hair was unafraid. She would not let this haggard crone intimidate her. She was a lioness of Casterly Rock, and a lioness does not fear a frog, no matter how old and ugly she might be.

"When will wed the prince?" She asked.

"Never. You will wed the king."

Beneath her golden curls, Cersei's face wrinkled in up in puzzlement. That didn't make sense to Cersei. She wouldn't marry the prince, but she would marry the king. _'Perhaps she means I shall marry Rhaegar once after his father is dead.' _Cersei thought. After all, how could Rhaegar Targaryen refuse her? She was proud, intelligent, and hailed from one of the richest families in Westeros; and she was beautiful, perhaps even the most beautiful in the Seven Kingdoms.

"I will _be _queen, though?"

"Aye." Wicked malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be… until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

Anger flashed across the young girl's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." She snapped. She sighed inwardly and recomposed her thoughts. She still had one more question due to her, one more glimpse into her life to come.

"Will the king and I have children?" she asked.

"Oh, aye. Seven and ten for him, and four for you."

That made no sense to Cersei. She could feel her thumb throbbing where she'd cut it and her blood was dripping on the carpet. _'How can that be?' _she wanted to ask, but she was done with her questions.

The old woman was done with her, however. "Cold iron shall be your firstborn's crown. The other three's crowns shall be gold and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white neck and choke the life from you."

"What is a valonqar? Some kind of monster?" The golden girl did not like this foretelling. She sneered at the old woman. "You're a liar and a warty frog and smelly old savage and I don't believe a word of what you say. Come away Melara, she is not worth hearing."

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Later that night, as Cersei laid in her bed wide awake, she thought over what Maggy the Frog had said. She would never wed the prince, but she would marry the king. She would be queen though, until there would come another, apparently young and more beautiful than her, to cast her down and take all that she had ever held dear. She and the king would have children, seventeen for him and four for her. A cold iron crown shall be the crown of her firstborn, but gold shall be her other children's crowns and gold their shrouds; and finally, when her tears had already drowned her, the valonqar will wrap his hands around her neck and choke the life from her.

Whatever it was all meant to mean to Cersei, she couldn't wrap her head its context. All she could tell from the crone's words were dread. She would marry Rhaegar once he became king and she would be his queen. They would have only four children. Cersei decided that her firstborn didn't sound of great importance, but her other three would be glorious kings and queens who would continue their family's great lineage. Thinking of her children and their future legacies stopped Cersei from mid-thought. Maggy had said that she would have four children, but husband would have seventeen. Does this mean that Rhaegar will be unfaithful to her? And if, the gods forbid, his whore would be the one to take her place as queen? What of the valonqar?

The golden haired daughter of Lord Tywin gritted her teeth hard at the speculation. How dare her husband, or any other man, humiliate her in such a way! She was a _Lannister_, she was a lioness of Casterly Rock. _'If his whore or whatever a valonqar try to harm me, I'll have Jaime kill them.' _She thought hotly. Anyone who dared lay a hand upon her would be met by the loss of a hand or any other limb by Jaime's sword._ 'He would rather die before any harm came to me,' _the lionhearted girl seethed. _'He would never see me hurt.'_

As Cersei thought more and more on what the old frog had foretold, her furious fuming began to lessen and her temper was dissipating. She was beginning to think calmly and clearly again, and as she did so, the Lannister girl started to realize how utterly ridiculous she was being for actually mulling and taking into the old woman's words.

'_The witch had tried to con me,' _she reasoned to herself. _'She thought that she could fool me! Probably laughing at me and thinking that she had the wool pulled over my eyes.'_

Well, let's see if she will be laughing in the morning when her father's soldiers circled around the old hag's tent to arrest for making a mockery out of Lord Tywin's golden haired daughter. Smirking to herself, Cersei settled into bed tired and pleased as she thought of the woman's look of despair and terror. Maggy's foretelling left her mind as sleep overtook her.

As she slept, the Lannister girl was unaware of the old woman residing in the bog. Maggy the Frog cursed the insolent child as she tended to her burned wounds from the flaming coals that the young girl had flung at her face. The old crone turned her head to look out the flap of her tent and let out a hoarse, throaty laugh, thinking back on the golden girl's soothsaying. She had told the child enough of her future, but she said nothing of the other that would be caused because of her actions. She did not speak of the vast land that would be ravaged by war and burned to ash in the many years to come, or of the innocents who would die, all for the price of a throne.

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**Love? Hate? Hope that this is alright and a great start. Review plz! :)**


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